Tom Westman

Template:Survivor contestant Tom Westman (born January 4,1964) is the $1,000,000 winner of the reality show Survivor: Palau. Westman is a husband, father of three, and former firefighter. Westman has a deaf daughter. He announced his retirement from the department effective August 82005. He plans to begin a career as a motivational speaker.

Survivor: Palau

Starting the game of Survivor, Tom was not immediately targeted. When the game began with all 20 castaways on the same island, it was revealed later in the show that Tom was in an early alliance with Ian Rosenberger, Katie Gallagher and Stephenie LaGrossa. However, when it came time to pick tribes, Stephenie ended up on Ulong, whereas Tom, Ian and Katie all ended up on Koror. The alliance between Tom, Ian and Katie stayed strong on Koror, despite the loss of Stephenie.

Originally planning to hide behind the younger males of his tribe, Tom soon became known for leadership skills, likability and, most importantly, his physical strength. As Koror was seemingly the weaker of the two tribes, Tom rose to a position in the spotlight in order to secure his tribe a chance in challenges. Koror may have been the physically weaker tribe, but they managed to use their intellect and select physical individuals to secure early immunity wins in Episodes 1-4. It was around this time that Tom, Ian and Katie joined together with Gregg Carey and Jennifer Lyon to control the numbers on Koror. In Episode 5, both tribes faced tribal council regardless of the challenge outcome, and Tom joined the rest of his tribe to vote out tribal annoyance Willard Smith.

Koror once again enjoyed more immunity wins in the coming episodes. The whole Koror tribe enjoyed substantial meals and well-structured camp life. In Episode 7, Tom even managed to catch a shark for his tribe, showing his strength. Ulong suffered defeat after defeat and eventually only one remained, Stephenie. Stephenie joined Koror in Episode 9 in an unofficial merge. Together with Stephenie, Tom's alliance controlled the game and voted out Coby Archa who was annoying the tribe.

At the Final 8, Tom's allies Gregg and Jennifer were not content with Stephenie staying in the game, worrying that she would destroy their Final 5 plan. So the decision to vote out Stephenie was made, despite Tom's campaigning for her. But Janu Tornell shocked everyone when she decided to quit the game at tribal council after Stephenie broke down once her impending doom was realised. At the Final 7, Stephenie tried to organise an alliance of women against Tom, but Tom's close friend Caryn Groedel would not commit and informed Tom of the plan. Together with Ian, Katie, Gregg and Jennifer, he voted out Stephenie.

At the Final 6, Tom was comfortable with his immunity wins and his alliance. However, he received a shock when Ian informed him that Gregg and Jennifer had swayed Katie to their side to turn on Tom at the Final 5. When Gregg, Jennifer and Katie were enjoying a reward, Tom, Ian and Caryn conspired to get rid of Gregg instead. They even contemplating drawing rocks in random elimination. But it never came to that stage as Ian informed Katie of the plan minutes before tribal council and she had no choice but to comply or risk elimination by random rock drawing, and Gregg was voted out.

At the Final 5, the alliance of Tom, Ian and Katie was on shaky ground due to the betrayal of Tom and Ian instigating Gregg's departure. Katie and Jennifer agreed to team up with Caryn to control the game. This was further pushed when Ian took Tom on a reward, despite promising to take Katie. This angered Katie and led to an argument with Ian after he returned. But after the two reconciled, they agreed to get rid of Caryn instead, abandoning the all-female alliance. At the Final 4, Ian contemplated turning on Tom and siding with Katie and Jennifer to vote off Tom. But when Tom enjoyed another immunity win, Ian agreed that Jennifer would be the next to go. However, when Tom found out about Ian's plan, he sided with Jennifer and voted for Ian. But Katie stayed true to Ian, resulting in a 2-2 tie. Both Ian and Jennifer participated in a fire-building tie-breaker competition. Ian won, and Jennifer was voted out.

At the Final 3, heavy arguments took place, especially between Ian and Tom. Ian felt as if he had betrayed his friends, and protested that he did not come to play the role of the villain. In the endurance immunity challenge, after close to 12 hours, Ian agreed to step down and be voted off in a sign of repentance for betraying Tom and Katie. Tom accepted and Ian was voted out. This immunity win was Tom's fifth out of only seven individual immunity challenges, a feat matched only by Terry Deitz and newly beaten by Ozzy Lusth who won five out of only six individual immunity challenges.

In the end, Tom Westman defeated Katie Gallagher in a massive 6-1 vote to become the Sole Survivor. He managed to gain the votes of Janu Tornell, Stephenie LaGrossa, Gregg Carey, Caryn Groedel, Jennifer Lyon and Ian Rosenberger. The massive win may have been due to many jurors believing that Katie was both rude and lazy.

Trivia

Westman attended academic and athletic powerhouse Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, NY, graduating in 1982. There, he was a peer group counselor and member of the track team. In 1982, he held the school record in the pole vault, 14' 6", which held for 20 years.

In May 2005 Westman launched his official website. In June 2005 Westman made TV Guide's "sexiest men" list. On June 102005 the town of Sayville, New York threw a parade for Tom Westman. The County Executive declared June 10 as Tom Westman Day.

On August 102005 he appeared as himself on CBS daytime soap The Bold and the Beautiful, discussing pool safety.

In November 2005 Westman guest-hosted an episode of Survivor's Internet talk show, Survivor Live.

He is one of only three fathers (at the time of the start of the game) to win "Survivor", the others being Richard Hatch (son) and Brian Heidik (son).

He is currently the last married person (at the time of the start of the game) to win "Survivor", and only the fourth overall besides Tina Wesson, Brian Heidik, and Sandra Diaz-Twine.

Currently selling Group Benefits for The Hartford in New York City with Mike McNulty.

To date, Tom Westman is the only man to win Survivor in a 6-1 vote. The three others (Jenna Moracsa, Sandra Diaz-Twine, and Danni Boatwright) also won in a 6-1 vote, but all of those three are women.

External links

• 2002 article on deaf daughter
• Video of Tom's first day back at FDNY
• Tom Westman at IMDb